1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to semiconductor processing.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the demand for semiconductor devices continues to grow, there is a constant need to increase manufacturing throughput without sacrificing device quality. Some methods include an apparatus for treating, and/or cleaning the semiconductor wafer as it is passed into a vacuum transfer chamber and/or a semiconductor process chamber. Such methods include passing the wafer through a curtain of a process gas or gases as it is transferred into a semiconductor process chamber. These methods can reduce the processing time for manufacturing a semiconductor device.
However, conventional apparatus used to perform these methods do not uniformly treat and/or clean the surface of the substrate. This uneven treatment, and/or cleaning of the substrate surface can result in poorly fabricated semiconductor devices that may not function properly.
Thus, there is a need for an improved apparatus for treating, and/or cleaning the surface of semiconductor substrates more uniformly.